Metairie business owner accused of stealing $121K in sales taxes from the state

BATON ROUGE – A Metairie man faces felony charges for an alleged fraud scheme that cost the state hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales taxes.

Investigators say Melvin J. Ziegler, Jr., owner of Cash Control Systems, a cash register and restaurant computer system company, failed to remit an estimated $121,396 in state sales taxes that he collected on equipment sales between January 2011 and September 2015.

According to the arrest warrant, the sales tax returns Ziegler filed during this period indicate he was “fully aware of the amount of past due sales taxes owed to the state.”

With penalties and interest on the past due sales taxes, the amount owed is now $215,915.

Ziegler was arrested on Wednesday, Sept. 20 and booked into the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison on charges of criminal penalty for failing to account for state tax monies.

He is the 69th person arrested under a joint anti-tax fraud initiative of the Louisiana Department of Revenue and the state Attorney General’s office.